Archive for category Ethics
Ethics in Leadership
Sam, HR has reported that you made sexual remarks to one of your female co-workers yesterday at the company fitness center. I recommend you rethink what you said to her. If you were intentional in harassing her, understand this: that behavior will not be tolerated in this company. How do you see this situation, Sam?
What do you see as ethical behavior? If you ask ten different people this question you will get ten different answers.
Here are a few:
“Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.”
“Ethics has to do with my religion.”
‘Ethics is the standards of behavior our society accepts.”
In his book Ethicability: (n) How to decide what’s right and find the courage to do it Roger Steare defines ethics quite simply: Our ethical values are determined by the answers each individual gives to the following questions:
What are the Rules? Am I acting with Integrity? Am I living according to a shared set of principles? Who is this shared set Good for? Who does it harm? Who could it Harm? What is the Truth?
There are two basic aspects of ethics – trust and values.
Values
I once led an initiative to create a customer service program. The program was designed around the values of respect and courteousness to colleagues as well as to customers. A committee of employees selected from every area of the organization dedicated months to creating the program. Read the rest of this entry »
Laws and Ethics in Psychology
There are many laws that control how psychology is used in our country. Most of these laws cover a variety of ethical problems that those in the field of psychology often face. There are certain codes and rules a psychologist must follow to protect patients as well as the public. These ethical principles not only help guide mental health professionals, but they also protect both health professionals and patients facing a wide variety of problems and difficulties. Professionals in the mental healthcare field may see many problems day to day in their careers, so many of these laws help guide them in making tough decisions.
Informed consent is an example of a law in the ethics of mental health care and psychological research. This particular law has been created in order to help protect patients and their family members. This law also serves as a guideline to researchers and mental healthcare professionals on how to properly treat and inform patients. Following laws such as informed consent laws help professionals protect themselves against medical malpractice suits as well as giving them guidelines to follow in the case that the medical professional is unsure how to handle a particular situation with a patient.
To a researcher, the laws surrounding informed consent may seem harsh, they are made to protect those who are naïve to any consequences of any treatments and studies. Luckily, there are many loopholes in these laws and these loopholes are kind of built in to protect patients, their families, mental healthcare professionals, and psychological researchers.
Take this into consideration: a woman that has been involved in a terrible car accident. In order to survive, the woman requires major surgery. However, the woman is unconscious and unable to legally consent to the surgery. Read the rest of this entry »